The iPhone 4S proved to be a bit more inconsistent with its sounding during phone calls, while the GS III really impressed us with the loud and relatively clear tones emitted through its earpiece. Both handsets sound very good on the outgoing end. The Galaxy S III again has a slight edge thanks to its flawless noise-cancellation technology, which eliminates pretty much any ambient noise.

On the other hand, the Apple iPhone 4S's loudspeaker does sound louder and clearer compared to the one of the Galaxy S III, which is on the weaker side.

The iPhone 4S is rated to provide 8 hours of 3G talk-time, as well as 8.3 days of stand-by. Unfortunately, Samsung hasn't announced any specific numbers regarding the battery life of the Galaxy S III. With moderate use, you should be able to get about 2 days out of the Galaxy S III, while the iPhone 4S may last slightly longer, due to the more power-efficient software and smaller screen. With heavy usage, you'll hardly get more than a day from the Galaxy S III, and a day and a half from the iPhone 4S. However, this is all hypothetic, as the battery life of a smartphone depends on numerous factors, including coverage, how much time you spend connected to a 3G/4G network and how much to Wi-Fi, what apps you use, etc., etc., so don't give it too much thought.

Conclusion:

As we stated in the beginning, this is one of those fights which could last for an eternity, because each of the opponents is the best in its own way. However, as we break things down, it should become clear to you which way you want to go.

There shouldn't be any doubt that the iPhone 4S is the better-designed handset. With striking visuals and premium written all over it, this is a phone that you won't be embarrassed to put on the table. Quite the contrary, you might want to put it there, as it has turned into a status symbol. The design of the Galaxy S III, on the other hand, caters to the needs of the hardcore crowd, thanks to its large display that makes enjoying multimedia that much more fun.

Apart from its multimedia superiority, the Galaxy S III is also the better phone if you love tinkering with the software of your mobile device. Are you of the type that is constantly looking for ways to personalize their computing devices, including their cell phone? Do you find it cool to install custom ROMs and/or overclock the processor of your handset, just to see how far you can go? If the answer to at least one of those questions is a resounding YES!, then you, our friend, absolutely need to get a Samsung Galaxy S III. We guarantee that you'll love it.

And who should get the iPhone 4S? Apparently, those guys would be the kind of users who don't really pay so much attention to their smartphone, but still want something that's contemporary and reliable. Are your needs limited to the basic phone stuff, surfing the web, occasional social network check and maybe even playing a game every now and then, but you have no intention of spending hours of rooting, flashing ROMs and searching for the ultimate widget set? Well, you guessed it you'll be better off with the iPhone 4S, as it's designed just for you, buddy.

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dumb comment if you are going to post make sure you post something interesting. back to topic the galaxy S3 brings more to the table with their new added features, and of course it has higher specs overall.

I think the conclusion sums things up nicely. Both phones have pros and cons and its up to the consumer to decide what's best for them. Personally I'm not i love with the whole "giant screen" trend so the GS III is out for me. Maybe a One S...

ray,
great review. I was interested to see just how you wrote this up.

one nit pick though is on the syncing..when comparing the 2 you completely neglected the sgs3 's ability to use Google drive to back up everything, the fact that Gmail has always synced contacts or that g+ auto syncs your pix to privace folders online. the Samsung cloud services are not necessary.

but what use is the cloud if you are not always guaranteed decent speed? not hating i use drive and dropbox but sometimes it is useless when i cant get decent speed where as with a sd card or built in memory,its always there regardless of your connection speed...cloud is not perfect but is great as you said its available if you got the connection and speed .its why i always buy phones with sd card slot.

you're right it's not guaranteed but if you're using a network like Verizon's 4G LTE or T-Mobile's HSPA+ then you'd just about think it is and besides most cloud services allow you to download your content so you don't HAVE to waste space on your phone with movies and music and such but you can if you want to.

The 4G LTE markets and man, i'm not even sure why you mention T-mobiles HSPA+, don't cover a majority of markets yet. Even then, you use more data on 4G and HSPA+, and nearly every carrier is not unlimited data, so you are just asking for overage charges on data usage.

ive been working in the industry for a while now and the one thing i can say, is that almost no one backs up their phone to their computer. iOS is/was fragmented to all heck and back because of the old requirement of having to wire it up to iTunes to get updates and do back ups, regardless of how much the media ignores it... RIM and WM5/6xx both had computer back ups and no one used them either.
Syncing is thought free. It just happens and you dont need to worry about it.

well then don't lose Internet Connection there babe or is that just too much to ask? ;P

the point is you have your stuff available if you want it. you're not obligated to use it but you can have more available to you when you have a solid Internet Connection which i'm not worried about on Verizon.

What about the payments because of huge traffic?
What about internet speed?
Not all world use Verizone.
You also can use SD card in your Laptop or PC so, that's not a problem.
Smartphone use more power while downloading content from the Cloud it will faster drain battery.

well then don't use it.
i have unlimited data, i can use 4G LTE and i'm not being charged to keep my data accessible from anywhere at anytime without actually having to take up my physical storage space so why not?

Do you have verizon when you're on a plane? When flying, I would think that is the time you want access to your data the most. You could pay the airline $7 for 15 minuts of wi-fi. However, if you're flying overseas, airlines don't have wi-fi over the ocean. Speaking of overseas, how well does verizon's CDMA network work outside of the continental US? The iphone now has the two antennas which is good. Its a good thing they are all rich because dowloading/streaming from the cloud while roaming has to be expensive. Now, aren't you glad you have the GSIII with both cloud access and a large amount of extended memory!

then download your data before you go. there's a time and place for cloud data just like there is for everything else. your plane example was as dumb as asking someone why they have games on their phone if they go to work.

I thought his comparison was terrible. It's like he was trying so hard to force out something good to say about the Android phone that literally wipes the floor with his precious iPhone. The GS3 is more than 3 times as powerful and feature packed. There is no comparison. This guy, Ray S., shouldn't be writing supposedly "objective" view points when he can hardly be objective. And it's not about "personal preference" in a head-to-head comparison. The GS3 wins, bottom line. This article is supposed to showcase the available features, most of which were left out of the GS3 part btw, and compare them against each other. This guy will never say anything is equal to, or better, than his iPhone and shouldn't be allowed to write these articles or reviews. The only thing he should be allowed to do is review the next iPhone, but even then you can't take it seriously because of his fanaticism.

Agreed,the article pretty much states that also stating the iphone is the phone if you "don't reallypay attention to smartphone" and use your phone for "basic phone stuff with occasional browsing". Anything more can be too much for most ifans as their iphone is essentially to make them look "contemporary"

well to be honest, I think this review kinda sucked. This was more iOS vs Android than anything else and it was pretty generic (a little too much talk about customizing and widgets). If it was another reviewer, it could have easily gone the other way. And I think he was trying to please you Android folk because you guys basically criticize everything he does (he gave SGIII the upper hand in a lot and yet some of you are still complaining).

But anyway the SGIII is a pretty solid device, but I do wish it wasn't so ugly... I'm pretty hopeful that the iPhone 5 will destroy it though. If Apple delivers like they did with the original iPhone 4, it may be game over.This should get interesting.

he could have went into more detail. that is true. but as a quick overview it wasn't that bad.

apple needs to come out swinging for the fence with the i5. even this quickie review shows just how far behind apple is in many categories. the sgs3 preorders out pacing the i4s's total launch weekend sales really shows what the masses want. if the i5 doesn't bring it, iOS is going to lose a lit more market share. if it does bring it, it puts them back in the game.. not dominating.

iphone is great for people who dont like to customise there phone to make it there own and all they really do is browse the web,play some games,fb etc but arguably the experience of these things is actually better on the larger screen. iphones is a great phone(had the 4 myself) but personally for me it is very basic at everything it does and doest really push itself...one thing that annoys me with android vs ios reviews is that everyone keeps saying android is too hard and ios is simple but the simple matter is somethings in android is way easier on android due to widgets and its sharing capabilties but android itself is simple out the box and there are more things you can do with it if you want to but you dont have to...you can use android just as basic as ios out the box,the only difference is if you want to you can do more but the fact is you dont need to use those extra features to use android.

Such a failed article!
Conclusion at the end is delusional.
With that attitude, why not compare the SIII with Emporia phones for elderly people and conclude that it all depends on what you need, so there's no clear winner.
You can't relativise the fact that, in a fair comparison, SIII blows the 4S out of the water.
It is proven in countless examples that android is actually EASIER to use, way more functional, more intuitive than iOS, (all things equal regarding the performance) even for a light user.

The Galaxy S III and iPhone 4S are more or less direct competitors. The Emporia phones that you give as an example are created for an entirely different demographic.

Note that I didn't say that the iPhone isn't for real smartphone users that do a lot of stuff on their devices. I just said it isn't the open and tweakable platform that Android is. But if you're OK with doing things in a strictly controlled way (the Apple/iOS way), you can do tons of stuff on an iPhone, using its applications. Meanwhile, if you want to do things your way, only Android can make this possible, because it gives you the freedom to do so.

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